The Shortest War in History

The shortest war in history is widely believed to have been the Anglo-Zanzibar War. The war was fought between the United Kingdom and the nation of Zanzibar in August of 1896. The entirety of the war lasted just over 38 minutes and essentially resulted in the subjugation of Zanzibar to British rule.

The war came during the aftermath of the death of the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini on August 25th and the subsequent succession to the throne of Sultan Khalid bin Barghash, who was not a supporter of British policies and was essentially (according to the British) a threat to their authority on the island. Khalid gathered together an army of some 3,000 soldiers (many of them recruited civilians) and barricaded himself in the royal palace. The British sent Khalid an ultimatum demanding that he that he have his forces abdicate and relinquish control of the country to a British supported ruler.

The ultimatum ran out at 9AM on August 27 and it was then that the British declared war on Sultan Khalid bin Barghash. The British had assembled a force of three cruisers, two gunships, around 150 marines and sailors, and probably close to 1,000 loyal Zanzibaris within striking distance of the palace. The 3,000 men of Khalid’s forces were almost entirely within the palace complex, armed with various small arms, a few artillery pieces and numerous machine guns.

At 9:02 the British opened up a naval bombardment on the palace and there forces there, and the palace consequently caught fire. The fire resulted in the disabling of the artillery and most of the machine guns, not to mention throwing the forces of Khalin bin Barghash into disarray. A few scattered shots were fired without much effect at the pro Anglo Zanzibari troops who approached the palace and the Zanzibari’s removed the Sultan’s flag from the palace essentially dashing his play for the throne. The firing ceased at 9:40 after only some 38 minutes and the war was considered to be over.

The Sultan had suffered almost 500 casualties while only one British soldier had been injured, and he would later recover from his wounds. Though Khalid was not killed in the skirmish, he did abdicate his position, and ended up escaping (with the help of the Germans) to Tanganyika. The war marked the end of Zanzibar’s status as a sovereign nation and a period of direct British control of the country.